Once More
by Kanthia
Summary: Posessed by the power of an arcane treasure older than time itself, Luffy gains the ultimate chance: to fail at his dream. Every face tells another story, every chance one not taken, a forgotten Possibility not taken by pure chance. [Sequel to Raftel]
1. Prologue: Time and Time Again

_Let's take it once more from the top. With feeling this time.

* * *

_

Nobody ever asked what happened to Gold Roger's nakama.

They postulated and pondered and concluded that the ailing doctor living in the frozen peaks of a perpetual December was proof enough that Gold Roger's nakama were alive and dispersed. But they were wrong. She was just an old woman who had sired a famous reindeer, whose fame concerning the First King was the product of a certain treasure residing in the Grand Line.

Happy with that falsehood, they turned their attention to the premature fate of the Demon Child, Luffy the King's nakama. Disagreements birthed, tempers flared: scientists pointed to Raftel's strange magnetic quality compared to the other islands of the Grand Line and proposed that a huge storm was caused thusly. Fatalists believed that the Devil was calling its child back home; realists assumed that it was just bad luck. The pseudo-sciences forced their way in. The Sandai Kitetsu was mentioned many times with only legend to back it up. Someone took a trip on stimulants and proposed that if the Straw Hats had not passed him by he could have saved them.

His suggestion was one of many. Soon the entire globe thought they could have saved the King. And none of them could prove their beliefs except for a single dead woman lying in the ruins of an ancient desert country. But the King had left her to die and c'est la vie.

People should have just let it go. And perhaps they would have if Time and the silver orb that was the sole inhabitant of a small island in the middle of nowhere had not crafted a different sort of plan.

* * *

Sentience. Conscious thought and ability to make decisions based on anything other than instinct. And emotion as well, all curses bestowed upon the pallid silver King of Treasures. For the first time since time smiled on the lonely planet Earth, the One Piece was unsure and divided within itself over its method of dealing with the late King. 

The child didn't really deserve to be denied a peaceful death with his nakama.  
No. It was the heartless beast that stole the lives of hundreds of pirates every day. It couldn't afford to feel bad for any tiny excuse for a King.  
It would follow through with its plan.

Taking in a proverbial breath, the One Piece concentrated its arcane power to the threads of time. Slowly, slowly, the threads ceased their movement until the entire globe was caught in a frozen beauty. Then backwards. Like a pendulum forced to swing the wrong way, slow at first: faster, faster, time spun backwards. Dancing. Spinning. The lines of time streaks of white on frozen black-

Then a stop. And the threads were released so that time could run once again.  
The One Piece pulled within itself, dormant once again.

And so it came to pass that eternity fled and time fled two years with it.

* * *

He shook his head and stared out into the clear sky. He could have sworn he was sleeping and had forgotten his dream right before waking up. There was a strange emptiness in his chest as he struggled to recall the dream and returned nothing. 

His name was Monkey D. Luffy, seventeen years old. He had left his hometown two hours ago in a small craft to see out his dream. "I will..." He mumbled under his breath, "I _will_ become the Pirate King. Just you watch."

* * *

_/kanthia writes-  
If you haven't read kanthia's piece of fiction entitled 'Raftel', please do so. 'Once More from the top' is its sequel._

_A million thanks to the people who have been kind enough to comment. You guys are awesome- thank you so much. Your reviews are like little pieces of sunshine for Kanthia._


	2. I: Turn Away

_Chapter the First-_

He left the smoking carcass of the beast that had stolen the left arm of the man he had once loved behind him as he slowly felt to the straw hat on his head. Still there. He breathed out slowly, at ease knowing that it was there; it was the second most important thing to him and perhaps the easier of the two treasures to lose.

Reflexively, his hand went from the plaited straw on his head to the greater treasure on his chest. It was at times like this when he felt to it for comfort.

His fingers felt down the thin black cord around his neck to the irregular shard that hung from it. He was always strangely reassured when he felt the cool fragment between his fingers, slipping like liquid but holding form like a solid. He pondered for the millionth time why it sometimes felt warm when he wasn't concentrating on the thing itself; as though it was hiding a secret from him.

He dropped it and felt the warmth for a second as it touched his chest, the fleeting and ethereal pulse of life. As though the fragment had once been part of a man like him but had petrified once disconnected from its host. There was no point in really thinking about it because he was sure the answer would come some day, he just had to tough it out and wait.

It was as much a part of him as the straw hat was; when he took it off, he changed. When it was separated from him his mind was taken over by an idiotic optimism that clouded his judgement and made him act like a child. A child that wasted his days eating meat and hoping the future would fall into his hands. The very thought made him shudder.

He turned back to the village he had just left and waved slowly, wondering if they missed him yet. It wasn't really that important to him yet, though; he would return someday as the most powerful man in the world. He was sure of it. He could already taste the sweet essence of victory in his mouth, like sake and sweat and the blood of men who dared to oppose him.

…No. That wasn't right. But the thought made him freeze for a moment. Another daymare, he thought to himself. Another daymare. They seemed to be hitting him with more frequency lately, like the time he had stabbed himself in his shoulder without warning or reason, threatening the use of his left arm. It had healed but the fear of insanity had not.

As he took precious time to mull over these useless facts of what must have been chance, quintessential warm and cold currents collided into a large stone that stuck out of the ocean floor a precious few meters not even close to breaking the surface. But it was enough to disrupt the currents, causing them to swirl around the stone in an attempt to continue on their way. This only caused the warm and cold to collide. The collision worked to cause the warm to swirl clockwise upwards and the cold counter clockwise downwards, meshing and working together until a whirlpool screamed the ocean's raw fury where there had been quiet only seconds before.

The child noticed it one moment too late.

"SHIT!"  
Shock contaminated his mind as he struggled to think of a way out of the situation. He couldn't jump out of his craft and swim away; he sure as hell couldn't swim. He couldn't paddle away because the swirling vortex had already half-encompassed him. He was going to die only two hours into his dream. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair because he was Monkey D. Luffy and he was going to die. He was going to die and nothing could save him but some higher power…

God smiled.

Proverbial milliseconds before his body should have been ripped to shreds of cold flesh, the shard of questionable birthright around his neck began to give off a silverfish glow that surrounded his chest, his body, the entire sea to every horizon he could see. A strange and extremely unnerving silence filled the silver air; suddenly it was only him standing in the silent silver glow as though he was deaf. He couldn't breathe. The situation was so familiar, so heart-wrenchingly _familiar_, that it was as though it had happened a scant few hours ago.

_hours  
silence  
nakama  
one piece_

_Arms creating flesh are like meat. meatmeatmeatmeat why did this happen to me_

"_Luffy! Stop stealing all the meat!"_  
"_Luffy! Stop eating form my plate!"_  
"_Luffy! Stop running away and **put your pants on!**"_

_If he strained hard, he could swear he heard people screaming as the sand drained their bodies of moisture and stole the country they had swore allegiance to. Their voices were joined by more voices; green and chocolate and blue and orange and pink voices. Voices of all of the colours of the rainbow. They were screaming and crying into his bleeding ears and pulsing veins and pounding brain. _

_Tears streamed down his face. _

_Two million and six._

_Six._

_Two million. _

_A lot of people screaming._

"_SHUT UP!"_

He opened his eyes without having closed them and the whirlpool was gone. The strange shard ceased its glow and slowly floated down back to his chest to once again mesh with his heartbeat and he wondered where it would have gone if it hadn't been secured around his neck.

If he strained his ears, he could still hear them screaming.

* * *

"Naturally," he said with a slight grin on his face. "It was meant to happen this way."  
"You can't win." The crimson tears that streaked like blood lit her face in an unnatural blood-red afterglow.  
"Oh, but you're wrong. I've already begun to win." 

She looked away and wondered if he was right. He had, after all, put forth a rather promising opening strike.

* * *

It felt wrong. 

But there could be nothing wrong with it. True, he had just been saved from imminent death from his Greatest Treasure and perhaps that was slightly less than fair, but it wasn't like he could have thrown himself over the side of his vessel in the name of fairness. Only fools did that and died for nothing with broken dreams.

The sea was calm and the sun was bright overhead, his stomach growling in tune with the soft melody of the ocean that hated him so. He needed food, a place to stay for the night, and perhaps a crew. He was, of course, a captain and needed the manpower behind him to see out his dream.

In the distance he noted the thin strip of earth signifying land. Thoroughly exhausted from his close brush with Death's hand, he considered it a golden opportunity to pass his last night in a real bed. He would commence sleeping on the rocking waves under the stars tomorrow. Besides, anything could happen while your eyes were closed.

An enemy ship could overtake you.  
A giant wave could throw you into the cold sea.  
A whirlpool could suck you in.  
A giant stream could knock you into the sky.

_sky island_

He shook his head viciously and turned his attention to the growing shoreline. It was still pleasantly midday but he was hungry and perhaps there were people on the shore waiting to be his crewmates. His friends. His na-

He wasn't going to think of that word right now. It made his head hurt too much and his consciousness lost itself constantly after just saying the damned word, combined with a fierce pain in his still-healing left arm. It was best to leave these matters alone and ignore them.

There was a sturdy dock awaiting him, and he slowly tied up his vessel and covered his possessions with a mauve blanket he had borrowed from Makino. She had bequeathed it to him with a sad sort of smile on his face as he had made his final preparations that morning.

He stepped out onto the dock and began to walk slowly onto the shoreline. His footsteps fell heavy and something inside him was screaming to turn away, turn away and get away from the island. There was something he needed to do. Something he forgot. But there was nothing he forgot, because he had taken everything he needed to see out his dream and everything else would come in time.

"What brings you to Hanno Island?" He looked up into the eyes of a quiet young man of perhaps eighteen years. He wore a simple greyed cotton robe and sandals and had been in the process of a long and thoughtful walk down the thin strip of beach between the town and sparkling sea. "My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm…" he paused, not wanting to arouse suspicion. "Do you know where I could purchase supplies and find a place to rest for the night?" The man motioned towards the bustling town behind him. "I don't know why you'd want to go there, anyways. There's nothing of interest, except for the Tower of Icarus…"  
"The Tower of Icarus? What's in there?"

The boy gave a lopsided smile that set off his clear brown eyes and hair a shade darker in a short, spiked cut.

"Icarus, of course."

* * *

_/kanthia writes-_

_sorry for taking so long. it took a long, long time to script the first arc of Once More; after that kanthia lost her drive. don't you hate when that happens? yeah. kanthia does too._

_who is the strange fair-skinned boy, what could Icarus possibly be, and why is Luffy so damn OOC? all this and more in the next installment of Once More- Start: Hanno Arc!_


	3. II: A Boy Who Hates Pirates

_Chapter the Second-_

"Hanno Island," said the boy, "Was once affectionately called Akroma Island." The sound of his falling footsteps pounded an even rhythm into the shifting sands. "One year ago the Hanno pirates came in their ships and claimed the island for their own. They're weird people- they don't force the men into labour, they just kidnapped all of our females, jailed half of our men and locked up Icarus."  
"Like Arlong."  
"What?"  
"Never mind." Arlong sounded like a kind of meat. "Why the girls? And why Icarus?"  
"Who knows, they probably want to start some kind of a new world order and need girls for wives. As for Icarus, they did that because they're stupid bastards."  
"That's the only reason?"  
The boy sighed and ran his fingers through his hair, displacing small beads of sweat. "Yes, because they're stupid bastards." There was a long pause as a cool breeze cleansed the air. "Icarus…fell from the sky fifteen years ago. We thought that God had sent him, that he was a message from heaven. You should see him. He looks like an angel."  
"You've seen him?"  
"…No, not really. I've seen pictures people have made of him."  
The silence perturbed Luffy. "What's your name, anyways?"  
"Ju- Daedaru Byou. But you can just call me Byou."  
It sounded rough and blunt, not like the name of God's child. "So why'd they take Icarus?"  
"Think about it. You have a child from God, right? You lock him up and threaten to kill him if anyone does anything, what happens?"  
"No more revolt."  
"Exactly."

The came over the crest of a hill and had a clear view of the town below. It was fairly large and quite busy with people selling things and people buying things but there was no trace of women. It bothered him. He noticed then the speed at which the hustle and bustle was accomplished, as if the air was too thick for movement at the correct human pace. Byou and Luffy joined the snaking men with forced grins selling colourless produce. There was no life in the living organism of the city, a fake mask pulled over eyes waiting to burst into tears.

"Anywhere to stay for the night here?."  
"You'll have to sign in with a Hanno. They're everywhere, but they're selective in their choices."  
"How so?"  
"Did you notice anything about the men you saw today?"  
"Yeah, they were dead-looking."  
"No, anything else?"  
He thought hard. "There were no old men, no little children. Everyone here is the same age, about."  
"Something else. You must have noticed."  
He knew. "Everyone was…"  
"Beautiful." Byou's eyes smouldered. "The Hanno Pirates enslaved our women and jailed the 'unfavourables'. They want a new world order; it seems, of beautiful men."

They came to a low table and a painfully beautiful man sitting at it- suddenly, Luffy was hit by a wave of déjà vu. This man looked like Shanks. Well, sort of; he had two arms and the look in his eyes was hungry, but the hair (light brown): slightly tousled, neat yet wild. "Hanno Junket. Nice ta see ya" He grinned hungrily. "Who's this whelp?"  
"_Daedaru Byou_."  
"Hanno Junket, or I'll get Captain Hanno back here and you'll be in his quarters for another night for another- junket." A laugh brought fire to his blood.  
"Hanno Byou," he grumbled, averting his eyes. "This is Luffy. He needs to stay on the island for a night, and then he'll be moving on tomorrow."  
Luffy smiled a tilted grin.  
"No can do, Junket. You know the rules-" A man at the next table, equally hungry-looking and equally beautiful, leaned over and whispered something in his ear. "-that only 'ceptable men can stay, and this boy is good enough. He can stay at Crossroads."  
"Crossroads?" Luffy tilted his head. "Where's that?"  
"Thanks." Byou turned and walked away, barely beckoning for Luffy to follow.

* * *

The inn was run down but serviceable. There was a lack of will, of energy, of anything in this town, which made the Hanno Pirates easy to pick out from the regular townspeople- there was one of them at the desk. He was too perky to have lost anything. He was staring at the ceiling, looking at nothing in particular when Byou and Luffy walked in.  
"Dae- Hanno Byou," Byou said in something that wasn't quite a whisper and wasn't quite a growl, "I brought a newcomer, Monkey D. Luffy. He's supposed to stay here for the night."  
"Monkey D-" The man paused. "Oh, I see. We seem to be- booked up." There was a pause that froze his ravenous smile. "He can stay in your room, Junket."  
Luffy grinned apologetically. "Okay, mister." He took Byou's hand. "Let's go to your room. Is it nice? Will I stay there all night?"  
Byou's face was a shade that was neither violet nor crimson as he walked slowly down the creaking hallway. "N-no. Listen, Luffy. Things have changed, okay? I don't want you…involved."  
"Involved with what?"  
They reached the end of the hallway; a large doorway at its end unlike the others that played a staccato on either side the long way down. Byou remained silent as he drove the door open and looked inside quickly before pushing Luffy in and closing the door behind them. 

"Listen." It was dark, and Luffy could barely see. The one window at the other end of the room had its curtains drawn; all he could tell was that the room was very large and Byou was very close. "Luffy, you've got to get out of here before the night."  
"Why? Do they-" he thought for a while, "Do they get rid of the food when night falls? Should we go get right now?"  
He felt a pinstrip of saline regret fall on his hand. Byou's eyes were shining in the lack of light, drawing the luminous darkness to his face. "Hanno. Captain Hanno- he likes to do things with me at night. That's why they call me Junket, because they all come and have their way. And now they saw you with me." His voice was low, low and angry. "They saw you with me, and they're going to have their way with you, too."  
He got up, leaving Luffy to the end of the room and threw the black curtains open. Sunlight flooded the room. There were things, things everywhere; pats of blood staining the wall, signs of violent struggle. His eyes refused to grant the room audience.

Byou had thrown his own heavy robe off as well. His clothing underneath was strange for the hot weather; why would one wear long black things under a heavy cotton robe in the middle of summer?

Carefully, slowly, like a mother's first time, he peeled these off. Underneath, white underclothes. He took his undershirt off- oh, the horrible, the horrible- the horrible-

His back, a broken map in one too many dimensions. Whip-lashes ached across his virgin skin, screaming and yawning down the backs of his legs. Down his front, ribs threatened to tear through rough skin, the skin of a man who has been there and done that too many times for his years. And all the red, blinding pink flesh moulded to red scar all over and over and over again.

A nightmare of a man- how could he still fly?

Eternity ended as Byou slowly drew the black cloth over his head, then the white cotton and tied it off with the golden-brown cord. Suddenly, his face was hard and full of angles and his eyes dark as hell without flame. "They'll do that to you, Luffy, only this is my two years of hell. You're leaving tomorrow morning. They'll do it to you tonight."  
He drew in a breath. "…They?"  
His smile was so grim, Luffy wanted nothing else for that one moment than to make him smile for real just once. "Captain Hanno's a nice guy. He likes to share the spoils with his crew."  
Luffy, who was playing with his pendant, looked up. "So why don't you fight back?"  
There was a long silence.  
"You _can_ fight, right? Under your robe. You took them off when you pulled it off, but you can use them, right?"  
Byou blanched. "You saw?"  
A nod.  
He put his face in his hand, mussing up the chestnut locks. "I never fight. If I did, they wouldn't bother with me- they'd go straight for Icarus."  
Luffy stood up, and walked over to Byou. "If Icarus is that important to you, why don't you let him free?"  
There was a tiny bubble of crimson gathering at the corner of Byou's lip as he bit them. "You wouldn't understand. I'm surprised, Luffy. I thought you were smart, but you don't understand _anything_." He grabbed Luffy roughly by the shirt, his voice rising. "Have you _seen_ the Tower? There's no stairs up it, all they have is a piece of wire that they use to ferry Icarus food and water through this little window. Sometimes at night, you can hear him screaming to be let out. He's God's Child, and they go and lock him up and threaten to cut that wire every time we act up in the slightest. Have you ever had pirates take over your village? Pirates, Luffy, are evil. They're evil, they're horrible, they're bastards who lock people up in cages. And you ask me why I haven't set Icarus free?" He let Luffy down, voice lowering to a growl. "If my death could mean Icarus being set free, by all means I would slice my throat open. This existence of mine is pitiful."

_slap_

Byou grabbed at his cheek, staring into the inflamed face of the shorter man. "You talk a lot about Icarus, and the Hanno Pirates, and the beautiful men, and then you talk some shit about wanting to die? What would Icarus say if someone went and died for nothing because they wanted to set him free? At least when you're alive you can _do _something. Don't say anything to me about dying for someone else. Give up your legs or your arms for Icarus, but don't talk about dying."

The silence between them opened something huge and bright, as the door creaked open and Captain Hanno walked in.

They turned in unison to the door and the most hideous face Luffy had ever seen. It might have been gorgeous, it might have been beautiful with a smile or a grin or a frown. The hunger Luffy had seen on the pirates lurking around town had multiplied to achieve this sort of thing; eyes wide, mouth open revealing predator's teeth, saliva and foam gathering like a monster runs to prey. He was tall, seven feet perhaps, with an enormous hairball of a chest and no shirt, with pants hugging his waist and huge, meaty hands that grasped and groped the air for effect. His skin, tanned deeply, his face, perfectly unmarred. His hair fell in blonde by blonde just below his ears, sporting rings of gold. His voice, perfectly horrible.  
"Junket, Junket, Junket." He stepped towards them, hitting floorboards with powerful weight. "Daddy Hanno's been overhearing some traitorous things from his little Junket." Hands reaching to grasp, to choke, to rape, to kill. "Little Junkie knows better, right?"

"Oi," said Luffy, "Who's the old man? He smells weird."

A strangled sound came from deep within the Captain, like an old fat bird learning new things from a little pink. It was replaced quickly by a slanted grin. "My, I don't think we've been introduced to your smooth-talking little friend, Junket. He may find that mouth will cost him dearly later on in life- open it too wide, and you never know what might float in. Catch my- drift?" Sickly yellow gas hissed in through the cracks in the walls. "Junket, Mouth-boy, for your own safety, I'm keeping you in my quarters until I'm ready for games at night. You may find it useful to rest until then. Tonight is going to get quite rowdy…"

He left with his laugh ringing in their ears, shut the door, and didn't return until the boys were gassed asleep and silent.

* * *

He glanced the edge of her cheek, white as something forgotten and red as the end of all things. "Your nights are of glory," he said, returning to before. "Your days have less to know. You are of no use to your Choices and Possibilities."  
"You are a monster," she said, plainly.  
"What is a monster? To any choice, a monster is one who is not oneself. I am no monster- to myself, I am perfection."  
"You know nothing," she said, "I spin for all, spin all I know; wonderful, terrible, I am Wisdom with her tapestry of clouds and sunlight and death and knowledge. You are the spider that challenges Wisdom's loom and fails. A spider may bite to darkness, but so can it be crushed underfoot."

* * *

"Oi, Luffy." 

He opened his eyes, slowly. His eyes registered nothing- he was too disoriented to tell if it was the lack of light or a blindfold. He was sitting propped up against something that could have been a wall with his feet tied at his ankles and his hands tied behind his back. There was an old, sick smell drifting around."Luffy, are you all right?"  
He tried to open his mouth, but couldn't. His mouth was sealed.  
"Damnit. I think they taped your mouth shut, Luffy." There was a long groan from the other boy. "We should've gotten away while we had the chance."  
He mumbled something in agreement.  
"I'm sorry for getting you involved in this, Luffy. This is all my fault, and soon it'll be night and they'll all come. Damnit. Damnit, they're going to go hurt Icarus-"  
Luffy felt his wrists, felt his hands, felt the fingers attached to them. Carefully, he stretched his fingers and untied the hastily conceived knots to limp rope, the kind soaked in oil and lit on fire to save people stuck in spinning wax statues. He was hungry. He was remembering things, and his head hurt from dreams and nightmares. Something was wrong, something was missing, something was very very right.

_shitshitshit_

A hand fled from the frayed rope to his head. No hat. He reached for his neck. It was gone. They took it. They took his hat, his greatest treasure-  
But his hat! They took it! And now they were going to come hurt Byou again, and he was freaking _hungry_!  
Someone was telling his head that his pendant was important, too, but he was too busy ripping off the tape over his mouth and the rope around his ankles. He stood up into the darkness, took a step and felt his hat under his foot.  
He picked it up slowly, brushing the dust off it.  
"Luffy? What's- what's going on?"  
"I thought they touched my hat."  
"Your _hat_? No, how did you get your bonds off?"  
"My hat," he said, putting it on his head and completely ignoring the question, "Is my greatest treasure. A great pirate gave it to me."  
Byou was silent. "And you took it?"  
"Pirates aren't bad people."  
"Yes they _are_! They come, and take whatever is precious to you, and then they leave. You don't understand, Luffy!"  
"I don't understand because I'm a pirate." He felt the edge of a poorly crafted dagger beneath his foot, and gently kicked it towards the source of Byou's voice. "Let's go kick Hanno's ass already!" The wall was beneath his fingertips. He pushed his fingers into the cracks, held on and pulled himself back too far for reason.

"GOMU GOMU NO…

ROCKET!"

His intention; break the wall. Mission accomplished. Unfortunately, as he exploded into the sky, an immense tower of blue sitting smack in the middle of the town happened to include itself in his trajectory. Byou, looking up into the sea blue sky of just past twilight, watched in aghast fear and amazement as Luffy flew into the Tower of Icarus.

* * *

_and thus, kanthia ends three months of 'writer's block', otherwise known as 'apathy'. that one damn sentence took three months to write...__  
byou is gary-stu love._

_there are many things that byou remembers, and many things that he wishes he could forget. as luffy flies, there are many things that come back to the surface after being lost forever in memory and time. flight, and freedom, and the moon on useless futility. his hands have learned a small something. his daggers are worn, but not broken.  
_

_ /kanthia_


End file.
